I am recovering from sitting up until 7am on yesterday morning. Why did I do that? Editing. I'd given myself a deadline of Saturday to have my novel on Amazon, and on Friday evening was incapable of going to bed until I'd finished the final edit.
Situation: Published novel required re-launching: better cover, better title, a final proofread, just to check....
Action: Found professional graphic designer who made a great cover.
Intention: Re-read original version, for proofreading purposes.
What actually happened: Did this, resulting in more changes than I'd expected. Why? Because in the intervening two years, my writing style has evolved, and I found it impossible not to try to improve the text. As well as rewriting some sentences, I deleted a few which now seemed redundant. I found more 'he said/she said' tags than were necessary. I found a few things weren't as clear as I'd originally thought.
Intention: Print out latest draft, only to proofread.
What actually happened: Did even more editing. Very few proofreading mistakes found. Lots of other changes made, however.
Intention: Go through tracked changes on latest, latest draft, online.
(Resolve: Not to print out again thereby risk doing even more editing)
What actually happened: Stuck to checking for punctuation, spacing and making a few tiny changes online.
What finally happened: Uploaded novel. Phew! Elation....
RESULT: Daughters of the Lake is now available on Amazon Kindle:
Summary:
Daughters of the Lake is a contemporary family drama set in Switzerland. Madeline invites her four adult child to celebrate her hotel's fortieth anniversary, unaware of their tensions and secrets. As the day of the celebration approaches, confused emotions take hold, and the happy occasion goes horribly wrong. Set against a backdrop of mountains and lakes, the novel is a mosaic of love, lies and family conflicts.
Learning: Loads. Take more care over book covers, making sure that the design reflects the character of the novel. Think harder about the title. Accept that when returning to an earlier work you are bound to find more you want to change than you'd anticipated- provided, of course, that you've been writing in the interim. Allow more time than you think you'll need for revamping text. And I know that all of this is obvious. It seems, however, that I am slow to learn....
Jane
Daughters of the Lake is a contemporary family drama set in Switzerland. Madeline invites her four adult child to celebrate her hotel's fortieth anniversary, unaware of their tensions and secrets. As the day of the celebration approaches, confused emotions take hold, and the happy occasion goes horribly wrong. Set against a backdrop of mountains and lakes, the novel is a mosaic of love, lies and family conflicts.
Learning: Loads. Take more care over book covers, making sure that the design reflects the character of the novel. Think harder about the title. Accept that when returning to an earlier work you are bound to find more you want to change than you'd anticipated- provided, of course, that you've been writing in the interim. Allow more time than you think you'll need for revamping text. And I know that all of this is obvious. It seems, however, that I am slow to learn....
Jane
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